1) The Utes have been exposed as a so-so team. 8
wins against mediocre competition isn't so impressive. When the Utes came up
against real competition, they were not up to the challenge.

2) The
Pac-12 will be tough and I doubt very strongly they will be able to pull off a
top-3 finish, especially their first year. They have played a few Pac-10 teams
these past years and have done well, but that is not the same as being in the
league and playing that competition level week in and week out.

I
doubt they'll be able to recruit at a high-enough level to get the talent they
need to finish in the top 3 year in and year out. Occasionally, yes, but I
expect the Utes to be an average Pac-12 team at best.

3) TCU is the
real deal. They have proven that they are a complete team and can compete with
anybody. I think they deserve a shot at the championship game. If they don't
get it, then it proves once again that the BCS is flawed and must be replaced
with a playoff!

Utah was exposed, yes. But about 115 other FBS teams probably would be
manhandled by TCU too. Let's be reasonable. I don't think this shows that Utah
is unfit for the PAC-12 all of a sudden, because I don't think there's a team in
the PAC-12 that TCU wouldn't beat, including Oregon. Maybe all this talk from
Utah fans about stepping in and being a dominant power next year in the
conference can finally die down a bit, hopefully. They're obviously not the
elite team or program some were thinking they were. But they're not pitiful or
incapable of competing in that conference either. I didn't glean enough from
this single game to thoroughly convince me one way or the other about them. What
if they win out and finish 12-1? Is everyone still going to think they're a
mediocre team? I just hope the criticisms and the embellished praises of Utah
are tempered now going forward after this game

Tough loss to a seemingly great TCU team. I hope that a road win against a
strong Utah team will generate a few more first place votes.

As a BIG
BYU fan I have been impressed with Utah's season and this loss is a setback, but
a victory next week against Notre Dame and then another against San Diego State
will setup a final MWC loss to BYU.

Here's my future dream for the
breakup of BCS and a national cry for playoffs. Utah wins the PAC-12 finishing
the season with one loss and playing in the Rose Bowl. Boise State winning the
MWC undefeated and playing in the Fiesta Bowl. TCU going undefeated and playing
for the national championship angainst an undefeated indepedent BYU and of
course BYU winning 57-0.

Holy cow! One loss and people are already condemning the U next year! You can't
judge an entire future season off of one game when the team will have that much
more experience. Who knows? They may get trounced, or they may dominate.

And to Mr. Solomon, everyone knows that LES is much bigger than RES. And
you're quoting scores from the "glory days" of BYU just makes your fan base look
nieve. If your team has to live in the distant past, that just means there isn't
much to cheer about in the present (your team still isn't bowl eligible and has
been condemned to the Las Vegas Bowl for how many years? -although it looks like
that's where the U is headed this year.)

Utah's survival depends heavily on Whittingham sticking around. This program is
not a traditional power and will not be able to recruit directly against USC,
ASU and Oregon. The facilities are mediocre, and the fan base is "fair weather".
The last two coaches (Meyer and Whittingham) have brought the U to it's recent
success. Meyer has already moved on and I doubt the UofU can pay Whittingham
enough money to stay loyal when programs like Tennessee are willing to drop 4
Million a year.

Still can't stop thinking about '84 solomon? BYU fans only show up when they
know they'll win. That's why they wouldn't like a move to the PAC-12 because
they would rather be a winner in a bad conference than have a challenge in a
good conference.

As for the Las Vegas bowl, I guess when we are
mediocre we'll go to the bowl that BYU went to when they were their best.

Ya, we got our butts kicked by a #3 team. We're we over rated? It seems
like it, ONe thing that is for sure is that TCU is really good.

OK, perspective people. It was one game, and TCU is one heck of a team. And I
don't care if Utah was playing football at the level equivalent of New Mexico,
going to the Pac-10 when invited is ALWAYS a good idea.

Football
aside, for the U of U to now be associated with some top notch schools through
the Pac-10 is a huge win for the university as a whole.

Meh, I'm not seeing the logic here. Yes, we got waxed by TCU last year, then
went on to wax a PAC10 team in our bowl. It wouldn't surprise me to see the same
thing again this year.

I don't think this game is a tell tale sign of
anything that will happen in the PAC. The PAC isn't full of TCUs. So, put down
the stick sub-.500-losing-to-USU BYU fans - you've competed for your last
conference championship. Utah will be fine in the PAC. We'll win some and lose
some - just like every good school in a good AQ conference.

Okay already. I have to admit, the unrepentant side of me smiled yesterday every
time I got an update on the game, but one loss to the team that may well end up
being the national champ does not make Utah a bad team. Or so so either.

I DO believe that SOME Utah fans got a little too wrapped up in how
wonderful everything had been going, forgetting that sooner or later, a loss
would come. When you have earned a spot on the national stage, it makes any
loss embarrassing. And when you lay an egg like yesterday...

The sun
will come out, Utah will still have a very good season, but yesterday planted
two seeds of hope for us cougar fans.

@TomB1382...No, nobody in Utah got the license number because they were and are
still in shock! They were still dreaming of being National Champs and then going
into the Conference of Champions and winning it again there. Now when they close
their eyes all they can see is blackness.

They were right in calling
a "black-out" They just didn't know they were going to be knocked out and see
nothing but black and then wake up to being black and blue.

I suspect that game yesterday was a horrible combination of TCU bringing their
very best and Utah just having a very off game. It makes no sense. Utah
destroys Iowa State 68-27. The yesterday, ISU takes Nebraska to OT. Weird.

One thing is for certain: there are a LOT of humble Ute fans this
morning. No matter what your team does now, you're probably going to the same
Las Vegas bowl you were disparaging last year. I would assume the Utes are
still better than BYU this year, but don't get too comfortable about that game
either.

Rock says, "Yet if the Utes don't mess up, they'll still play in the Las Vegas
Bowl, home of the Mountain West champ." I wouldn't put money on that, Brad. All
things considered, the Cougars didn't look a tenth as bad against the Frogs as
did the Utes. As poorly as it would appear from the Y's won-loss record, overall
they've played better teams than the U. As titillating and flashy as a move to
the PAC-12 seemed, it now appears the row-to-hoe to get to a NC isn't going to
be close to the cakewalk the team on the hill thought it would be. As BCS-ready
as Thompson thought his MWC was just twelve months ago, after TCU finds a new
home, it'll be nothing to turn your head to look with BSU versus the pygmies. As
risky as the road to independence is purported to be, the more it looks like not
a half-bad way to go.